New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-02-02

AZ SAAh0.3 ~. hOOO, managing EQlLOra
Wednesday, Feb. 2, 1887.
In our last issue we said that the day
{ may not be very distant when the state
will have to assert in reference to the
railway a right so frequently and liber-
ally delegated to its builders, the right
of eminent domain. On the Goth of Janu-
Il airy the house committee Of the whole
recommended the passage Of memori-
al to Congress in which that very right
Els asserted in respect to the 100000
square miles Of land in the United
States underlaid with coal. In the Ian
guage of the memorial, the people of
the United States are forced to pay tri-
butte to few men holding this vast
area of coal bearing land; and as these
men have performed no service to their
fellow countrymen to entitle them to
this privilege, but have derived their
wealth and power solely from the arti.
fetal scarcity created in the coal sup
ply by their illegal combinations and
conspiracies, the memorial requests our
senators and representatives in Con.
gress s'to prepare a bill, asserting by
the right of eminent domain the sover-
eign right of the people to relieve them
selves from this oppression by con-
demning all coal lands where such con-
spiracies and combinations exist, and
also to reserve our coal lands yet be-
longing to the general government, as
valuable mineral lands are reserved,
and for the establishment of some sys-
tenn of management whereby the peo-
pie can at all times obtain cheap fuel at
the actual cost of mining the same, and
not permit this great essential OF life
to be monopolized by a few citizens to
the great detriment of the whole peo-
ple.' Mr.. Donnelly said in respect to
the memorial that ''the right asserted
in it of eminent domain as possessed
by the government is novel, but necess-
ary for the public good" Nobody
doubts the right Of the state to take
private property for public use on pay
ing it's appraised value; and it becomes
the duty of government to exercise that
right whenever the public welfare de-
mands such seizure. If it is necessary
for the public good that the state oper-
ate number of coal mines in order to
furnish the people at the actual cost OF
mining with kind of fuel the occur
renee of which is limited to a few ia.
vored localities, it is equally necessary
that the state possess the means OF
carrying such fuel at the actual cost OF
transportation to the remotest corner
Of the country. A government system
of railways is but a necessary adjunct
of government mines, while as one Of
the means of securing to labor its just
returns its advantages would be 8
thousandfold greater than those result.
ing from the proposed coal-mine plan
If the state should build a system o.
railroads that are to furnish transporta
ton at actual cost, no private corpora
ton could compete with the same. Ir
this case railroad companies woule
sooner or later request the state to pur
chase their property. As compliance
with this request would unnecessarily
duplicate state roads, and non-com
pliance would be an act of injustice tt
corporations which have for so long I
time been weighed down with the per
Torrance of duties shirked by the gov
eminent, the only way out of the trou
BILE is vigorous exercise on the part o
the state Of the right of eminent do
main. That little memorial on tn
coal problem should be speedily fol
lowed by q bigger one on the railroa'
problem.
Commenting upon the Lucas memo
rial relating to the ownership of Goa